President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed that terror groups would not find comfort in Turkey, stressing the government’s commitment to counterterrorism in the southern part of the country, Anadolu reported.
Erdogan was speaking at a public rally in the southeastern Turkish province of Mardin on Thursday.
He said the government had launched a peace process to end the conflict with the PKK terrorist group in the region, “but they could not understand it, they unfortunately detonated bombs, dug ditches”.
“They [the PKK terrorists] either return from this wrong way and surrender, or leave this soil,” Erdogan added. “Otherwise our soldiers, police and village guards will uproot them from this country.”
In 2013, the government launched a solution process to end the decades-old conflict with the outlawed PKK, a dispute which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people over more than 30 years in Turkey.
Erdogan said there was no discrimination between citizens in the state.
“Don’t allow anyone to enter between you and our state. The nation -- you -- are our only interlocutor until now,” Erdogan added.